


Bara Team Realty

by mamodewberry



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Never Met, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, realtor AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-16 22:44:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7287652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mamodewberry/pseuds/mamodewberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which, Haru is in the market for a home and is far too curious about a realty agency called Bara Team Realty and finds what he likes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bara Team Realty

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably the dumbest thing I've ever posted. 
> 
> So. I work at a home builder and I was keying some invoices and came upon an invoice for Bara Team Realtor. It's the husband/wife duo's last name, but I couldn't help but chuckle at it and get ideas. I blame Ale, Pandy, and Hana for encouraging this to happen. here was also talk of Bara Team Movers, but I went with Realtor instead. 
> 
> Un-beta'd as my beta is working on the last chapter of [Wait for Me](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5126576/chapters/11795408) and this is a dumb thing, anyway.

Home buying was never painted as a glamorous process. After hours of researching on the internet, Haru could see why that was and was overwhelmed. There were many options on how to obtain a home, but he lacked resources and the patience to make several phone calls. As much as he hated to rely on a stranger to help him in his endeavor, he presumed it was the easiest option. 

He wished he could say it was the reviews that brought him to this particular agency (no bad ones, really) humor and curiosity be damned, but the very name: Bara Team Realty. At the very least he could smile about that in his otherwise unpleasant situation. 

To not appear completely ignorant, and to save the poor agent the trouble, he printed out the application and filled it out before entering the automatic doors ahead. Given the name of the facility, he half expected the interior to be gym themed with barbell shaped desks and shirtless men. What he found was fairly normal as an office establishment went. Other than all employees being tall, broad-shouldered men in tailored suits to fit their bulging frames. A lesser joke to tell Rin when he got home, but an experience nonetheless. He could see why women rated this place so highly. 

Soon Haru was at the front of the queue line and directed to the next available agent at a polished desk. 

The man stood from behind it and leaned forward into a bow. “Hello. I’m Tachibana Makoto. How may I help you today?” 

Haru returned the gesture. As they both rose, Haru felt the breath leave him. 

Tall and broad with muscles to fill out proportions like the others, this man had a boyish grin and soft features, reasonating a warmth behind crinkling green eyes. 

“I haven’t seen you in the office before. Is this your first time with us?”

He wanted that to be a pick up line, but knew better.  _ Ridiculous _ , he scolded himself. “Yes,” Haru replied.

“Ah, I see you’ve done some homework and filled out the form. Excellent. I can take that from you and we can get started.” He then extended a large hand, which Haru took longer than was normal to consider, though Tachibana didn’t address it - probably thinking it was attributed to nerves than You Have Very Nice Hands and I Want to Look at Them More. 

Nodding, Haru relinquished the paper. 

Tachibana reached for the breast pocket of his charcoal with dark green pinstripes suit to withdraw rounded rectangle glasses, then edged his chair closer to the computer screen to transfer the information.

Haru quietly processed the new flattering accessory on the realtor’s face. He was very glad Tachibana was occupied with typing as well as softly reading out loud (which could be annoying for most, but Haru would call it cute for this man), to notice he was being stared at. Maybe he was used to it by now? That was the purpose of this business, wasn’t it? Draw clientele with handsome and fit men? His eyes swept over the naturally kept messy brunette locks, his clean shaven face, down his strong jawline, shoulders, arms where the fabric pulled while he typed, and to his left hand that bore no ring, which Haru felt ashamed for feeling so relieved. He was here to find a home, not a date!

“Nanase-san?” Tachibana asked in a surprisingly honey tenor voice that normally wouldn’t match a physique as his, but it only added to the list of endearing qualities that Haru was mentally making. “Nanase-san?”

“Yes?”

Tachibana raised his brows curiously. “I notice that you didn’t specify a preferred areas on your form.”  

“Chiyoda or Chou. Bunkyo.” That sounded reasonable.

“Bunkyo… Chiyoda… Chou,” Tachibana typed out. “Okay, great. A studio to one bedroom apartment with a bathtub. With your budget and so little requirements, I think I can find something for you.”

“Is that all I need to do?” Haru blinked.

“Oh, well, you’re welcome to search on your own and send me your findings, if you’d like. Then I I will get in contact with the owners so I can show you the homes. If you’d like me to do all the work, I’d be more than happy to.”

“No, I meant … I was surprised that’s all.” Are there home buyers out there that leave this poor, sweet man to do all the dirty work?!

“That is what I’m here for; to make your life a little easier,” he smiled, tilting his head to the side.

 

“I didn’t know you were into that.” Rin flicked the business card back at Haru with a shit-eating grin.

The business card fluttered onto Haru’s knee, name side up. “I’m not.” Really he wasn’t. He went there as a joke and honestly he didn’t have the heart to mock the angel’s work place. 

Rin plopped on the couch next to him. “Did they at least help you look for a place?”

“They  _ will _ help.”

“More importantly… are they really all baras over there?”

Haru nodded. Everyone at a desk, anyway. There was a regular-sized woman who looked like she worked there. The owner?

“When are their hours?”

 

The next day, an email from Tachibana pinged into Haru’s inbox. Normally Haru hated his phone, but seeing that notification had him swiping the fastest he ever had. 

Once opened, it contained a link to a portal of apartment and condo units that suited Haru’s given criteria. Below was well wishes and an invitation to be contacted if he needed any assistance. Professional and generic. As it should be. He then clicked on the link and scrolled through the choices. Not bad. Other than two of them he couldn’t tell if they had a bathtub or not. 

He’d have to see them in person to decide. 

[I’d like to see all of them] he typed and waited.

Moments later he received Tachibana’s response. [Wow, really? And here I was being nervous that you wouldn’t like any of them! Can you meet me tomorrow at that first place? I’ll make some phone calls for the other ones].

A smile spread across Haru’s lips. If he said he wanted to see every place that is sent to him, he’d get to see the handsome agent as well. 

[I’ll be there.] Haru emailed back. 

 

Five train transfers later, Haru was stepping off the platform and exiting the station towards the main road to walk several more blocks. Was Bara Team Realty big enough to have company cars? Seeing Tachibana standing on the sidewalk, carless, in white shirt and green tie and nametag, answered his question. How long had he waited?

“Hello, Nanase-san!” he gave a small bow, rising with a glowing smile. “How are you?”

“Fine, thanks.”

“Shall we?” Tachibana asked, jingling keys in his pocket. 

Haru followed after him up the steps to a thin, five-story condominium. Up steps on the outside to the third floor and opened the door, inserted the key on the second door on the left. 

“This one may be on the small side, but I thought the location was nice. It’s just you that will be living here?”

Haru stepped inside and took a quick glance around, as all entries to bathroom and kitchen could be seen from the entryway. Almost too small for his liking. The kitchen definitely wasn’t equipped. But he wasn’t going to say anything about his distaste just yet. “Yeah. My roommate and I decided we wanted our own places.”

“Ah I can understand that. I also have a roommate. We get along, but sometimes you just want your own space.”

Rooming with Tachibana sounded lovely. 

“Anyway, what do you think?”

“I don’t really know what I want. Can I look at more?” 

 

After the first home they took the train together to the next two. Haru didn’t have any specific complaints about what they looked at, he just didn’t want to make an offer and never see his realtor again. Truth be told, the more he looked inside the homes, the more he really didn’t know what he wanted. Thankfully he had Tachibana’s expertise to show him around. 

For the next month they exchanged correspondence and visited places that hadn’t sold within the time the meeting time was set up. 

“You haven’t made any offers,” Tachibana said as he locked the last door for the evening.

“I haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Sort of true. Maybe he was being selfish and wasting Tachibana’s time

“I can expand the search to other wards if you’d like. I’d hate for you to limit yourself.” So sincere and diligent. Never once had he sounded irritated at Haru’s indecisiveness - he’d been nothing but patient - if anything he sounded disappointed in his ability to do his job.  


“You’re doing great.”

Like clouds parting from the sun, Tachibana’s face brightened. “Thank you, Nanase-san! Please let me know what I can do to help.”

_ Can you help how tight my chest feels whenever you’re around? _

 

“Still no luck, huh?”

It took a moment for Haru to realize he was being spoken to. The coursebooks and notebooks in front of Rin made him think he was speaking out loud again. Luck with what? Oh, he was probably referring to the housing situation, not his cowardly love life. He shook his head.

Rin clicked his teeth. “That’s too bad. Well, thanks to our mutual kink of baras, I found a place.”

“That was fast.”

“We are in a time crunch, Haru. Maybe you should get a different agent. Or at the very least ask him out. Yeah, don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing.”

“Not like you haven’t done the same,” Haru countered.

“Exactly! And that’s why I have a new place to live. There’s a refurbished unit that’ll be done next month in his community, so he’s leaving his roommate and I’m moving in with Sousuke after our lease is up.”

“That was fast,” Haru repeated with the same deadpan intonation. He wasn’t jealous. 

Rin took no offense with a cocky shrug. “Hey, when you hit it off, you hit it off, and did we ever  _ hit it off _ .”

“Gross.”

 

Two days later, Haru went to Bara Team Realty to visit Tachibana without notice, guilt weighing. He knew his schedule by now, out with clients, barring, and walked inside straight to his desk where he was reviewing scattered home profile documents.

Adjusting his glasses, Tachibana looked up in surprise. “Ah, Nanase-san, I wasn’t expecting you. Please have a seat.”

Haru took the invitation. Were those his files? He remembered visiting some of them. The charade had gone on long enough and Haru needed to stop overworking this kind soul. Yesterday he thought back to the places they looked at in the last week and had prepared to put down an offer for whatever one was still available. 

“I apologize for the mess, heh.”

“It’s my mess, anyway.”

“What? Oh! Oh no, these are for me,” he said, sheepishly collecting the papers and forming a stack. “My roommate - the man that sits in the desk on the other side of this wall - is moving in with someone else in month and I’m trying to decide if I should move as well. Are you mad that I’m also considering some of your choices? That was really rude of me. Did you like any of them? You get first choice, of course!”

Haru shook his head, all the while smirking at the coincidence. “Is your roommate moving in with his boyfriend, by chance?”

Tachibana flushed at invading a friends privacy. “Yeah, actually. How did you know?”

“I’m almost positive that boyfriend is my roommate.”

“I’ve only seen him a handful of times. Red hair. Sharp teeth?”

“That’s him.”

The pair had a good laugh together. 

“What are the odds!” Makoto dabbed at the corner of his eyes with his pocket kerchief. 

“Yeah.” Haru held the amused smile on his lips as he contemplated his next words. He had come to offer for a place of his own, but he was now presented with another option. “Tachibana… I liked the photos I saw online of your community from my roommate. Since you’re now looking for a roommate and I’m still looking for a place-”

“Nanase-san, you’d do that? Move in with me? I mean, uh, split rent with me.” Again he colored. This time on his own behalf and it was downright adorable. He had accepted the offer before Haru had even offered. Was he just as smitten? 

“Only if you stop calling me Nanase-san.”

“Right. Ha-Haruka? I mean, Haru. And you should call me Makoto.”


End file.
